Aunt Fannies Cabin...Squash Casserole.

[norgeway]

Aunt Fannies Cabin was a wonderful old real Southern restaurant in Smyrna Ga outside of Atlanta, I only have read about it and heard personal testimonies about how good it was, it would never fly today because it was based on an old black Lady that cooked for the the McKenna family for over 60 years, imagine a trip back to the 1800s and that was what it must have been like, the recipes used were as old Southern as you could get, many being used by Aunt Fannie Williams herself, I had some squash so I decided to try this, very simple, but sometimes simple is best.
Aunt Fannies "Baked Squash"
3 pounds summer squash"Yellow squash"
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup crushed saltine crackers." Crush about a whole sleeve, use the rest on top"
2 eggs
1 stick melted butter
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Wash and cut up squash and onions, boil till tender, drain well, mash, add all ingredients using only 1/2 cup of the crackers and half the butter, pour into a baking dish, pour the rest of the butter on top then the remaining crumbs, bake 45 min to one hour at 375 until bubbly and brown,

Aunt Fannies Cabin served rosin baked potatoes that were said to be the best on earth.

 

[davey7]

So how did it come out? It sounds pretty good.

 

[norgeway]

Really

Good, It is very mild but flavorful.

 

[kevin313]

Hans,

Does this ever sound good! I love summer squash - it's not in season here yet but will be in a few weeks. I'll put Aunt Fannie's recipe in the rotation.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[danemodsandy]

You Want Squash?

Here's how my sainted grandmother did it, and you'll notice it's not so much a recipe as it is a method. This gives a very intense squash flavor:

Squash, stemmed and sliced
Onion, peeled and sliced thin - say, about 1/4 as much onion as squash
Salt
Pepper
Butter

The squash and onion should be stirred together in a heavy, even-heating pan, uncooked. Add salt (say, 1 teaspoon) and pepper and stir again. Add a lump of butter at the bottom of the pan.

Turn the heat on medium high, and cover. Check every few minutes, and when you see liquid from the squash, turn the heat down to a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the squash and onions are tender; more liquid will accumulate as you cook. Correct seasoning and serve.

You will notice that there is NO WATER used in this method. That is because squash contains plenty of water on its own; adding more will just dilute the squash's flavor.

You'll end up with very flavorful squash! P.S.: The liquid is the best part - pure buttery veggie bliss.

 

[norgeway]

Re Squash..

The recipe says boil, but i didnt, I used very little water, maybe a tablespoon full and the waterless method of cooking in my Health Craft cookware, then made the casserole .I agree with your method, it does make a difference.

 

[michaelman2]

Aunt Fannies Cabin had great food and the squash casserole recipe you have Hans, is the exact recipe. It was interesting that into the mid 1980s Aunt Fannies Cabin had young black boys come around with a small chalk board that they wore on the front of their uniforms. It had some type of lanyard or rope. The females were dressed like "mammys" Kind of creepy. There is a marker denoting where the restaurant stood. I ate there many times...closed in 1992. I fry chicken just like they used to...real lard, not the smelly Hormel product in stores...

 

[tomturbomatic]

What happened to yellow crook-neck squash?

All I find in the stores up here is yellow squash with the straight neck. Somehow, it does not seem the same; it is always bigger with more seeds. I learned to cook the squash separately from the onions which were slowly fried and allowed to caramelize to develop flavor. When the squash was done, it was added to the skillet of onions and then, slowly, it was all stewed down. Just like with making fried corn, it was a process that could not be hurried.

There was or perhaps still is another restaurant in the Atlanta area called Mammy's Shanty. One or both of these restaurants used a modified slant-front Westinghouse to wash the sand and grit out of the mountains of greens they prepared each day. I read about it in the Atlanta Journal about a hundred years ago. The Westinghouse always excelled at sand removal. Since they were not salad greens, they did not have to be spun to remove the water and were not damaged by the tumbling.

 

[chuffle]

A little noodling around on the Internet...

...finds this little blurb about Aunt Fanny's Cabin:

http://www.smyrnahistory.org/_welcomecenter.htm

 

[chuffle]

Rather than posting a photo here...

An interior shot of Aunt Fanny' may be seen in this forum link - scroll nine photos down.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=144398